Anne organized a great conference! The first night was the teary part: with her talking about her experience and Stuart and Pat, that lost their wives, and Aimee talking about Nicky's NICU stay and her subsequent successful pregnancy. It was very emotional and it touched everyone. You should have seen dr. L trying to hear every word when Aimee was talking about Nicki's hospital stay. I wish we had more doctors! This is the kind of thing they need to see.

On Thursday it was action day: Eleni boosted the day by asking us to find out which of us ran a marathon and spoke to more than 250 people and organized an event... which was fun because the night before we mostly talked about how preeclampsia affected us.
Anne talked about the history of the Foundation and emphasized how far we went to get here.
Carol made everyone brainstorm ideas for chapters and fundraising, Paul presented the registry idea,
Eleni gave us a great PR 101 class and
then Dr. E. gave a great speech and answered questions.

The picnic with the candlelight vigil was great as well. Nancy came with the kids and Elisabeth came with Indigo and it was like a big family meeting. Norlissa, Nancy and Carrie organized the candlelight vigil. It was very touching to see everyone think about lost babies and mothers.

It was a well rounded event and I think we all got what we came for and more. Me and Paul were very impressed and happy that we came: we shared stories, found similarities, learned a bit, communicate our thoughts and put faces to Internet profiles.

Your turn! If you went to the conference, please add your thoughts about it!

I have to admit that I'm still processing. However, one of the best things for me about this conference was meeting all the really active members of the Preeclampsia Foundation who work for the aims of research, education and support in real life[:D]. For those of us who mostly interact with PF via this forum, it was eye-opening to meet all these amazing women, Joan, Eleni, Carol and Alisa just to mention a few. While this forum has become our own little part of the internet, it is exciting to realize that we have the potential to contribute to an active and productive organization that can reach out to women affected by preeclampsia who've never heard of Google and could care less!!!

Good synopsis, Ileana. It was a wonderful conference. A big thanks to those who organized and helped! The best part for me was the interaction with those that came. We laughed together, we cried together (some of us even saw the Troll together :)). It was such a priviledge to share the time with you and to learn so much about each of you and your experiences. It is hard to describe in words but, the strength and resilience of those who came left me in awe and grateful to be associated such inviduals. Thank you for coming and thank you to your families for the sacrifices they made for you to be here.

I am completely wiped. Like Catherine, I need time to process things but thanks to everyone for participating (both there and behind the scenes) to pull things together. I (and we all did) missed Laura. ALOT. I was wishing I had more time with each of you there (and those we missed!!!!!) because it was just too short. For me--it highlighted the value of 1:1 time. I went with Eleni to Vancouver for the NASSHP meeting (Paul joined us for one of the days) and that was also very informative. For me it was interesting because it is so academic. They are still arguing over whether or not to use Magnesium, how to check proteinuria, how to define high blood pressure, etc...Paul went to the session where all the junior (residents, young fellows, even a 1st year med student) spoke and many of them were very excited to support our work. The older set were more reticent to get involved with the research but the good news is they need us as much as we need them. It is great that we have people like Dr. Easterling and Dr. August (whose reputations are stellar) defining the research mechanism for our database and people like Paul and Ileana putting together the instrument. Paul, Eleni and I were lucky to get a good chunk of time with Dr. James Walker from the UK. Dr. Walker is routinely cited as one of the top three doctors internationally on preeclampsia and he is also just a really good man. He is very supportive of our registry idea and has been working on a couple similar projects in the UK. With the UK's group APEC being interested in possibly merging with us--there is a possibility of some broader research implications.

Thanks to all the presenters, volunteers, everyone. I am sooooo tired it is not even funny.

Hey, I'm such a late-comer some days! I too had a wonderful time meeting everyone. It was very emotional to listen to the husbands and Aimee tell us their experiences in person. That took so much courage and strength to get up there and talk about something so painful and heartbreaking. By the end of Thursday evening I was emotionally drained and I didn't even attend the all day conference! It was so wonderful to match faces to the wonderful men and women I talk to every day on the forum.
Anne, you did such a wonderful job putting everything together! it all seemed to run pretty smoothly which is amazing for doing it for the first time.
Carol, we spent most of our time getting to know one another and I really really enjoyed it! I cannot wait to get together again now that I know you are so close.

One of the really neat things is that everyone chipped in and donated $6,850 by the end day to give to the PF! If only we could do that every day or even once a week. The conference really made me want to contribute more of myself to helping the cause. Hopefully Anne will find a place for me very soon! :o)

I thought I'd post a link to the pictures I took at the picnic:
http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EegOGrFk5atnyQ

I really didn't get too much of a chance to take all that many pics since I was busy with Indigo most of the time, but you all understand! :o)

I can't wait for next year! Thank you so much for going to so much trouble in your life Anne and so many others for bringing the PF to life. My dh and I truly owe my life and Indigo's to this forum. We LOVE you all very much! :o)